At right, the Eagles celebrate Grace Rowan's home run in the bottom of the second inning. Rowan's two-run homer were be the last time Hood River scored, enroute to a 12-2 defeat.
The Dalles infielder Maddie Brock makes a play to catch the ball outside the infield lines versus Hood River on April 5.
Noah Noteboom photo
The Dalles sophomore Siyra Faulkner (40) makes a catch on April 5.
Noah Noteboom photo
At right, the Eagles celebrate Grace Rowan's home run in the bottom of the second inning. Rowan's two-run homer were be the last time Hood River scored, enroute to a 12-2 defeat.
The defending OSAA Class 4A softball state champion The Dalles High Riverhawks beat the Class 5A Hood River Valley High Eagles, 12-2, in a gorge rivalry contest April 5 at Westside Elementary School in Hood River.
“It was an awesome win and it really felt good,” said Coach Lindy Macnab. “The girls are highly talented, and I’m pleased with our performance, which showed exactly what they’re capable of doing and what I needed them to do. We were worried about the game, especially since they [Eagles] had played so many more games than us. The girls practice hard, they were hungry, and they wanted to get the win.”
The Riverhawks took a 2-0 lead at the outset of the contest on a cold, blustery day. Senior leadoff batter Zoe LeBreton (3-for-3, five RBI) singled, stole second base, third base and scored on Rowan’s wild pitch. Junior Maddie Brock (3-for-4, three RBI) added an RBI single, driving home Aizlynn Rubio, who had reached base on a walk.
The Eagles tied the game in the bottom of the frame with a two-out rally. Senior Marina Castaneda (2-for-2) singled and then Grace Rowan (1-for-2) followed with a two RBI homer over the right field fence, making it 2-2. It was Rowan’s third home run this year.
The Riverhawks regained the lead for good in the second on LeBreton’s RBI single, driving home sophomore Ava Graves, who reached base on an error.
After two scoreless innings, the Riverhawks took control of the game with a nine-run, fifth inning offensive explosion. Fifteen batters went to the plate to face Rowan and sophomore relief pitcher Kenadie Lucas.
The Riverhawks capitalized on Eagle walks to Faulkner, Kaleyah Crichton-Tunai (2-for-3) and Keiliani Crichton-Tunai (1-for-3, RBI). Sophomore Hailey Johnston reached base when she was hit by a pitch to load to bases. LeBreton then followed with a grand slam, for her first homer of the season. Brock also contributed with a two RBI single in the scoring outburst.
“It feels good to beat them [Eagles] since they’re our rival and we definitely needed a win, because we’ve only played four games, so it was good to go out there and get a victory,” said Keiliani Crichton-Tunai. “I had faith in our team and I knew we could win and we just needed to get our bats going and play solid defense and that’s what we did. We had a really good pitching performance too by Siyra.”
Faulkner tossed a three-hitter and struck out two in her first-ever varsity game. Faulkner threw 53 pitches, including 39 strikes.
“I felt like we played really good, everything was solid with our strong defense, good hitting and pitching and we were super impressed with the strong pitching by Siyra, who just did a great job,” said Kaleyah Crichton-Tunai.
“There were some really good performances, including Zoe’s grand slam,” said Macnab. “It’s pretty cool to be ranked No. 1 and obviously, it’s very exciting. I was glad to see that we had a lot of real solid hits … Siyra has worked hard in practice while just waiting for her opportunity and she’s been working on locating the ball and having good movement.”
The Riverhawks (3-1) had a season-high 12 hits. After three low-scoring games, the Riverhawks notched their first win by a double-digit margin. Last year, the Riverhawks finished with a 26-3 record, and they had 18 wins by 10 runs or more. The win marked the fourth straight in the rivalry series for The Dalles. Hood River’s last win was a 12-9 victory on May 12, 2022, in The Dalles.
The Dalles also won a nonleague April 2 home contest versus visiting Pendleton, 2-1. The Riverhawks took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, highlighted by an RBI sacrifice fly by junior pitcher Despina Seufalemua (four strikeouts, walk), who scattered six hits. Following two scoreless frames, Pendleton tied it 1-1 in the fourth.
Following a scoreless fifth inning, the Riverhawks scored the game-winning run in the sixth. Brock (1-for-2) and senior Jeilane Stewart (1-for-1) both drew consecutive walks and Seufalemua’s single loaded the bases. Johnston then had a clutch, game-winning RBI single, driving home Brock, making it 2-1.
The No. 10-ranked Eagles (7-5) had a tough week as their loss to The Dalles extended their losing streak to three. The Eagles lost 14-11 to the Class 6A Gresham High Gophers (5-6) April 1 at Gresham, followed by a 14-13 loss to the 6A No. 11-ranked Nelson High Hawks (8-1) April 3 in Clackamas.
The Eagles opened their 14-game Northwest Oregon Conference schedule Tuesday on the road versus the Parkrose High Broncos (0-7). The Eagles play their next game Wednesday at 5 p.m. versus the Putnam High Kingsmen (2-4) in Milwaukie, followed by a road game Thursday at 4 p.m. versus the La Salle Prep High Falcons (3-5) in Milwaukie.
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